Chapter 27

“Yeah, I'm worried about Cassidy. He hasn’t been sleeping well,”-Remington

Remington

I had the best dream! Cassidy declared his love for me! I was so stunned that I could only reply with “me too!” But it was such a beautiful dream! I only wish it were true.

I need to get a grip. Cassidy is straight. He loves women and has no interest or intention of settling down, falling in love or anything like that with me or anyone else.

I need to focus on the task at hand, helping Cassidy celebrate his brother’s Alpha Oath and the upcoming Full Moon. After that, I will head home and discuss my timeline for the move to Mammoth Falls. I believe the office is still being retrofitted with eco-friendly and sustainable solutions. I probably have a few months to list my penthouse and buy a home in Mammoth Falls.

I open my eyes and roll over to my side. Cassidy’s shirt is hiked up and his sheets are a tangled mess. I worry about him. He is so restless.

I’ll let him sleep in.

I head downstairs to help with breakfast, without showering or getting dressed. Pajamas are enough. Cassidy’s family all treat me like one of their own. I love it, but feel so guilty about the lie.

I love them as much as I love him. It makes it so much harder.

Melody stops me in the hallway and whispers, “I know you weren’t together as a couple until after the farmer’s market . If it’s just to keep Shana at bay, that’s fine, but for what it’s worth, I really hope you stay together. I like you a lot, but I can tell Cassidy loves you.”

“I’m his best friend of course…”I start but she covers my mouth.

“No explaining or quantifying,” Melody says and walks away.

I scrunch my brow. I don’t understand what she is doing. There are many kinds of love and I am certain any love Cassidy has for me is platonic.

I wander into the kitchen, still slightly dazed and confused and get right to helping with breakfast preparations.

“You don’t have to help,” Cassidy’s mother, Dotty, says to me as I slide up next to her and grab a knife to chop fruit for the fruit salad she is making.

“I enjoy helping. Besides, I really don’t want to watch Cassidy toss and turn. His sleep seems to be disrupted a lot the last few days,” I reply.

“The poor thing. I bet he would be more comfortable sleeping in the same bed as you. Perhaps, we can arrange for that. I have been meaning to put a more grown up bed in that room for his visits,” Dotty suggests.

I don’t want to lie or give us away, so I stay silent as I chop the fruit then move on to chopping vegetables for an omelette.

“I would like that,” I finally say, softly as I feel my cheeks heat.

“You don’t need to feel embarrassed. You are grown men and I know what you do together. I don’t need specifics, but I won’t feign ignorance about your intimacy,” Dotty replies.

I could tell her we are not intimate, but that would definitely give us away. It’s not that I don’t want it. Oh, Gods! I want it and would be willing to let Cassidy take me, rather than my preference of being the top. But Cassidy is not attracted to men and has said so outright often enough in the past to keep me from any delusional thoughts that we could be together in that way.

Greg, the football player I dated, was so closeted that even the thought of Cassidy knowing he and I were together would make him snap. Cassidy was on the team and nobody could know we were together, let alone that he was being topped by some skinny geek with a huge dick. That is how he put it when he swore me to secrecy. Cassidy already knew we were together.

The day Cassidy tossed him out, I had made the mistake as I was coming down from my orgasmic high, of suggesting we cuddle. He freaked out and threw me off of him before I could pull out, then he slapped me and grabbed my arms snarling in my face about how we weren’t in a romantic relationship. I knew then that it was over.

Cassidy quit the team after that season. He was never as into the sport as he was into his speech and communication, media and theater courses. Especially theater. That is where he got the most unusual and most beautiful women from, usually. Not that I am any expert on women, but seeing some Cassidy has had trysts with, I have learned to discern his reasoning behind each.

Cassidy likes classically beautiful women, because…duh! They are beautiful! But he likes bizarre and unusual women because they are often willing to experiment and explore facets of sexuality, and they are often more aggressive about what they like and want. Cassidy enjoys the adventure and I know he has some kinks.

He never talks about what he’s into. I know he’s got a piss kink from his reactions to us doing the temporary marking of one another. I didn’t know I had one until marking him with my piss.

We have run into Shana and she sneers at our combined scents but she still says, “ I know Cassidy! I know what he’s like in bed! There is no way you are truly together!”

She is right of course, but her voice wavered the last time she said that. She is uncertain of the truth in her own statement, now. I wish I could be.

“Hey, Remi!” Oren says as he and his youngest offspring, Jade, enter the kitchen. “You seem deep in thought, today.”

“Yeah, I'm worried about Cassidy. He hasn’t been sleeping well,” I reply. It’s not a lie, just not all that is on my mind.

“Are you still sleeping in those twin beds? He probably needs to hold you in his arms,” Oren says. “Morgan sleeps best when he feels like he is protecting me, even though I can hold my own.”

Hmm…Cassidy is protective of me. I can’t really hold my own, but we also have a different relationship than what everyone thinks we do.

“Maybe,” I concede.

“Maybe, what, Remi?” Cassidy asks from the doorway, looking rumpled and bleary eyed.